Our Trip to Cleveland to see Joey Bats

Originally, my wife and I were going to attend Opening Night in Cincinnati. My uncle mentioned that we were invited the day before Easter to see the Tribe play the Blue Jays in Cleveland. I wanted to see Jose Bautista–after all I’ve never seen him play. I owed this to myself.

It was enjoyable, cool early April afternoon and I’m glad we went North rather than South on this first MLB Saturday of the season.

I won’t lie, it’s always going to be “The Jake” to me. Nevertheless, I’ve had a lot of good memories at this park. There’s something special about a weekend afternoon game in Cleveland. Maybe it was the Bertman’s.

I didn’t get to see Bautista hit a bomb or anything, he went 0 for 4 with a walk. He homered the night before and was probably all tuckered out from playing the longest extra inning game (16 innings) to open an MLB season in history the night before.

A view below of what used to be Pronkville. An area that used to be in some demand now has few inhabitants. Notice the Horseshoe Casino advertisement, due to open up in May. I hope it’s kinder to me than Las Vegas has been over the course of my young life.

Ubaldo Jimenez brought his ‘A’ stuff on this afternoon. This was the longest game that I’ve ever been at before in which a pitcher has carried a no-hitter. Jimenez took his 6 and 2/3 innings before allowing a single to Brett Lawrie that also let the shutout get away from him due to a walk and a wild pitch.

I came away impressed by Jimenez, he was mid 90’s on a cold afternoon and if he can get his control going better he’s going to have a nice season.

Cleveland cityscape. It’s a cool city I suppose, though I rank it behind Cincinnati and Indianapolis in a lot of categories.

Tell me that isn’t a weird line score. My uncle and I were discussing if there were to be a walk-off homer and no other base hits in the game and the game ended 2-1, has that ever happened before? Had to get the bizarro world linescore on the blog.

Hairy Buffaloes in Cleveland. My wife had to pee after we parked. As sorry as this Chief Wahoo looks, he would look sorrier before the afternoon ended.

What, we’re advertising on foul poles now? Cleveland has officially became a foul pole advertising franchise. You should be real proud of yourselves, Indians. I’m told by my friend who is a Tribe fan that these were like this last year, but I don’t buy it. I would have noticed.

Life imitates Hollywood. Shades of Major League when the Indians players show up to the park and there are ads absolutely everywhere.

We sat in the club, ate way too much food, and enjoyed a 12-inning Blue Jays victory. Sorry, Cleveland. It’s going to be another long summer for you. At least you have the warmth of the memories (speaking of, I met Carlos Baerga before the game) and the Browns to look forward to.

Scratch that. At least you had the 1995 and 1997 Indians, a lot more than any other fans can be promised to ever experience. Like Tom Petty says ‘the good old days might not return’ but at least there are good old days to look back on.